Seed Share UK

Hi everyone,

I am a member of the Going to Seed UK group and we have been working on a seed share project for the UK. After a successful pilot in the Spring, we have opened registrations for the next seed share, late Oct/early Nov 25.

Who is it for?

UK seed savers, hobby plant breeders, seed librarians
interested in growing special mixes for diverse, resilient crops and more relaxed seed saving


How does it work?

1. Send in between 5-10 packets of home saved seeds, along with a prepaid shipping label with your address (to return seeds).

2. When all the seeds have arrived, they get mixed for each crop type.

3. You will get an email with all the crops available. Choose the 5-10 packets you would like in return.

4-5 Receive your chosen seeds to grow and enjoy. You can select the plants that do best for you and start saving your own mix, adapted to your garden and goals.

There is no obligation to send seeds back at the end of the season, although we hope you will want to share them with your community or participate in a future seed share.


Email seedshareuk@gmail.com
to register interest, ask questions, share what crops you'd like to contribute.

I hope to get all my seeds ready to send in soon - my runner beans are the last hopeful - the pods are pretty green still, but are showing signs of beans developing so fingers crossed!
My vegetable garden has been so much more successful since I've been saving my seeds - freshness is probably part of it, but even in just a generation there appears to be local adaption going on.

If anyone wants to get more actively involved you can join the going to seed discourse group pm me here if you can't find us there when you're registered!

Beautiful garden Nancy!

I can't wait to pull the carrots, they are so vigorous! Well, our seeds are, the commercial ones are meh, as usual...
I had enough last year to group them in colour clumps: whites/yellows, darks, oranges (twice as many carrots to have it in majority in the mix). The darks have always been pathetic for me but I got one to ripen seeds and a few more managed to flower (hopefully they contributed pollen).

This year has been tricky but the mixes have pulled through! Many seeds to share...

Thanks Julie.
I like the way the fennel catches the light in this shot - pity it doesn't seem to bulk up for me. I'm quite excited to dig my carrots this year - from the top they look good, but it is what is under the ground that counts!

Fennel has been a mystery to me too... Last year, I left them in the ground (they never bulked up, went straight to seed as usual). Many came back and produced a bulb in the spring. I won't bother planting in rows anymore but simply scatter the seeds and let it do its thing!

Julie Menier wrote:I won't bother planting in rows anymore but simply scatter the seeds and let it do its thing!

I tried that initially, but had a couple of issues. I was mixing different crops in one bed, so the swede shaded almost everything else out, and I'm trying to add organic material as mulch through the summer following one of Helen Atthowes guidelines (see https://permies.com/t/223741/Helen-Atthowe-soil-health#1910536 for example for a short video) so having gaps between the rows means I can add mulch without swamping my seedlings. My rows were a bit close together this year but I hope to do better next - still learning!

YES! Brilliant initiative!

Fresh seeds are so much stronger, it's incredible. Even direct sown tomatoes and chillies came up this spring. Accidental discovery by using old potting soil as a bit of mulch on a new bed 😂 but definitely worth trying intentionally.

This year has been very dry where we are, and I'm hopeful the leek mix has successfully set seed. Roots don't really like our garden much, but results seem to be improving.

Hope to have some good things to send you 🌾

Yes, they are so strong and the mixes work so well. I'm loving the volunteers too!

I had tomatoes and (I think) physalis volunteers up here! The tomato even flowered (unfortunately no fruit though!)

I'm just getting my seeds together to send in now. Unfortunately not much in the way of root vegetables - they tend to be biannuals and I had a poor year last year as the birds ate all my sown seeds (I think) But I do have some nice pea and fava beans



I think these gorgeous black flowered Fava beans came from the mix last year

What a beauty!

This looks great - I look forward to being able to join in on future years when we’ve got things more established.

If there is anything you'd like from my seed list just let me know Rachel. I'm happy to post out to you. It is mostly perennial vegetables and useful wildflowers/herbs this year, although I do have some veg seed from last year still... Seed saving is so useful!

Hi Rachel, good luck establishing your garden!

What a clever idea Julie! Having people send their own seeds in avoids people just wanting free seeds. On GTS Europe there were quite some that just seem to want to get on the list for the Serendipity Seed Swap Europe or seed train. Whatever we've thrown at it, like could you tell us who you are and make an introduction post, some people seem to just want to do the minimal and not get engaged at all. Which is quite depressing when you do all to make seed great again. This is a great workaround. thank you!
We've started the Starter Kits and a Telegram channel about Adaptation Gardening where we speak low barrier of all things adaptation gardening and permaculture etc and show pictures of treasures etc. The Starter Kits you probably heard me bang on about, but for others reading are the seeds we have in true abundance that can be distributed without risk of losing something, like all cucurbitacea, but also parsnip and parsley to name a few.
We'll have a meeting in Croatia soon and speak of the future of the seed exchances, i'll definitely mention this initiative and see how people react.

Hi Hugo,

I wish I could join you in Croatia, it's going to be epic!

Finding a way to make seed sharing sustainable is a major issue for all (GTS programs, seed libraries etc). It's good to see different ways to deal with it.

Like you, I believe we need to stack different schemes.
Good seed diversity for seed savers, like the seed share or seed train, only for people who have seeds to contribute.
Surplus seeds as gifts for community projects, seed libraries, starter kits etc.  No pressure to return seeds.
Hopefully, some newbies will learn to save seeds and move into the seed saver group. But the whole thing doesn't depend on it!

Another issue is: is it scalable? Is it human sustainable? The easiest thing for the seed share is to have one hub but that might mean one person doing all the work. If you split up into several seed stewards (like the seed share US), then participants need to send several parcels and stewards need to send repackaged seeds to a central hub for final packing.

Not sure what the answer is... I'd love to know what comes out of the conversations in Croatia. Please keep us in the loop!

Good evening friends! How's everybody? Blake is on a quest for some historic European heirloom crops that fit my criteria of my community's past. I have the French, Germans, Irish, Swedish, English, Polish and Serbian in my community in Chicago centuries ago before the 1900s. Here's my list.
1. Gros De Vert artichoke
2. Gortahork cabbage
3. Tippary turnip
4. Irish green pea
5. Red Dutch cabbage
6. Martock or Celtic fava beans
7. German or Dutch black carrots
8. Lemon yellow carrots
9. Red stem leaf celery
10. Bere barley (more of those even if I already have some)
11. Irish black oats
12. Serbian Osmak corn
13. Serbian old melon
14. Serbian sweet elephant ear pepper
15. Serbian white pumpkin
16. Ancient Serbian pole beans
17. Swedish lentil beans
18. German or Polish fava beans
19. Serbian or Slovenian red onion
20. Irish or Kerry blue potatoes
21. More Lumper potatoes
22. Rosscoff cauliflower
23. Oland or Swedish wheat
24. Common Flat Dutch cabbage
25. Serbian white sweet pepper
If any of you have those, please reach me at the Purple Moosage for more info and where to go from there. I'm doing my very best in all of my power to make my gardens more historic and soar again to help people return to their true form and sense of belonging. I want folks to remember their motherlands and ancestors and what they did to make my community great again economically, socially and religiously. Good night!

Good evening friends! How are you? Blake is continuing his hunt for more European settler or traditional European crops to help restore his community's past in Chicago to edify all. Here's his list this fall.
1. Gorthork cabbage
2. Viceroy parsnip
3. Uncle John kale
4. Irish pea
5. Tipperary turnip (green top)
6. Swedish red pea
7. German salad cucumber
8. More Red Dutch cabbage
9. More Futog cabbage
10. Dutch giant pumpkin
11. Old Serbian melon
12. Sunny Creek cucumber
13. Serbian white pumpkin
14. Osmak white corn
15. Osmak red corn
16. German black or yellow carrot
17. Bosnian or Serbian basil
18. Croatian broccoli
19. Leda lettuce or Serbian winter lettuce
20. Grandistac bean
If anybody has those, please let me know in the Purple Mooseage. Also looking for more rare Mexican types such as those from Michochan, Jalisco and Guanjanto if any of you have those. Take care.

Good morning friends! How are you? Blake back to ask if there's gonna be another swap this year in the U.K. Could it happen online? I remain on the hunt for more Irish, Swedish, Polish and Serbian varieties to help restore my community's past as well as Mexican and Sierra Leonian.
Speaking of Sierra Leone, I have a great grandfather born there from my late father's side. Please shoot back if you need me. Have a good day!

The local adaptation thing is real, even in just a season or two. My saved runner beans this year have been noticeably stronger than the packet I started with, which I always assumed was just freshness but might be something more. Blake, worth reaching out to Julie directly about this year's dates.

Julie Menier wrote:Email seedshareuk@gmail.com
to register interest, ask questions, share what crops you'd like to contribute.

Good morning.  I've sent in an email.  I'm very keen to support, but not sure I'll have much spare seed after the bad year we've had in hot, dry central England.

I must try to get some tepary beans!